With more capacity and fewer safety issues than their lithium counterparts,magnesium batteries are potentially a promising energy storage option, but the electrodes are difficult to produce and quickly fail. Scientists want something better. Inspired by a two-metal electrode, and made of tin and antimony,a team at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) delved into the atomic workings of this alloy. They saw the metals separate into antimony- and tin-wealthy regions. The tin regions worked well; the antimony-wealthy areas did not. However, the antimony regions were crucial: at the interface, or border,between the two regions, the antimony kept the tin structure from collapsing.
Source: phys.org